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Thursday, September 6, 2007

Finally! Howie actually got the boot from Top Chef this week. And I'm not surprised to say the least.

We'll start at the Quickfire Challenge. The chefs were challenged to create a dish using $10 and shop out of only one aisle of the supermarket, i.e. cereal aisle, canned food, etc. Let's start with Hung. Oh Hung, were you on some mind-altering substance? A couple of chefs commented that Hung's dish looked psychodelic like he was visiting Smurf-land or something. Even guest chef, Michael Schwartz, uttered 'What the fuck' when he saw the "candy land" mess. It appeared that cocky Hung was back to his old ways when he claimed that (of course) Chef didn't like his dish because he was closed-minded - HA HA HA.

Then there's Howie, who didn't put out any dish because he was unhappy with the result of whatever he was trying to make - really? You're supposed to be a Top Chef? Roll with it man! I think that was grounds for elimination right then and there.

Brian ended up winning with is elegant Spam (?) concoction - way to go!

So now, for the Elimination challenge, the chefs were asked to cater a boat cruise with $50 each to feed 60 guests. Boy, what a disaster for most. Howie tried to redeem himself by preparing two dishes, an asparagus phyllo cigar and mushroom tarlets that looked like.. well, number 2. Casey prepared a beef carpaccio, Sara made a tomato bread pudding, and C.J. gave us a seafood sausage.

And now Hung, who has regularly claimed that everyone else makes things that are so common that "his monkey could make", prepared a salmon mousse on cucumber slices. As the judges mentioned, that was sooo 1980s and not inventive at all. Hung's defense? "I make classic dishes that the average palette can eat." Let me tell you, I was rolling on the floor when this came out of his mouth. Hung, I'm rooting for you, but really?????

All of the dishes came out average with only a couple clear top contenders from the near dozen hors d’œuvres that came out of their kitchen.

Now, onto Judges' Table, Casey wins and all are safe but Hung and Howie. Poor Howie, he's always been a stubborn bastard from day one and tried to take himself out of the competition before he was voted off by the judges' because he didn't complete a Quickfire dish and clearly bombed both Elimination Challenge dishes. Thankfully, Tom and Padma didn't go for it and deliberated among themselves who was going home. I think we all knew that it was Howie's time to finally go.

The competition is definitely heating up and my favorite Anthony Bourdain will be with us next week so I can't wait!